Fifteen years today since the formation committee meeting of the TransWilts CRP (17th April 2010), signalling our community group was moving on from being foremost a campaign group to foremost more positively a partnership.

I was on the train on Tuesday at 09:10 from Melksham to Trowbridge and it carried 36 other passengers, 7 of whom had joined at Melksham.  A further six left the train, so that was 42 customers on the section unique to the TransWilts line, 13 of whom used the service to get to or from Melksham.  [42/13] in the way we log it.   On the train met the station manager from Westbury and his deputy - good "hello" and chat but see them and well enough in touch not to enforce a campaigner's meeting on them.  Met volunteers on the station garden at Bradford-on-Avon and again chats and a bit (but not much) more - WWRUG newsletter discussed and the station looks lovely.

I returned from Oldfield Park at 15:59 (Canal and Two Tunnels walk to get there) via Trowbridge and arrived Melksham at 16:38 - 35 passengers onto the train into Melksham, 8 got off, 6 joined, so 41 users of whom 14 were Melksham users - so that's [41/14]. Local trains and connections all on time.

Yesterday (Wednesday) I did my daily mile (plus) walk which I tuned to take me past the station to see the newly installed IET stop boards which will allow long distance trains to stop at times of diversion rather that it always being buses and taxis.  We'll see how that works out - an ongoing story.

We have achieved (or rather we have helped the railway and common sense achieve) a lot over the 15 years and I will follow up writing more as I move from being too-occupied as a Town Councillor back to being an active advocate and assistant for public transport.

I celebrate the rise from 2 trains each way per day to 9 on Monday to Friday, and 7 on Saturday and Sunday, and the 20-fold increase in passengers this has brought. The client base very much needs the train - there is a heavy proportion who cannot drive and so it's still very much a social service as well as being a more environmental way than a private car.  But it needs to step up in frequency, and it's not always as reliable as it should be (I am very used to waiting between 1 and 2 hours at Westbury when an official connection misses), and access to the station in Melksham needs to improve.  Going well - but work in progress, and I'm looking forward to doing so much more of that work in coming months and years.  With buses as well as with trains, and as part of the network over the whole area and indeed region.

grahame@Kryten apr%